What is the Sound of One Sky Falling?
Pig squealing venture capitalists
cavort with minors in dark corners.
Bold doppelgangers are awash with envy.
White rabbits crawl out of top hats.
From beyond the Mountains of Fear
come the foreign hordes.
Aggressive lint makes its presence felt.
Well-meaning carpet salesmen want to know why their
showrooms are empty.
Men whose lips are sealed are selling secrets
from the linings of their pockets.
Sadness is in the air, along with low-hanging
clouds and a fine mist.
Refugees appear with bags of belongings
and shoes without laces.
These are dark times with darker times to come.
Smear charcoal on your face, dress in black and hide in the
shadows.
Soon you will have company.
Lots of company.
Robber barons are laughing themselves silly as they devour your
neighbors.
Don’t worry.
It’s not you they are after.
Simply disconnect.
This doesn’t need to concern you.
Until you hear the knock on the door, live it up.
Step lively.
Live lovingly.
Laugh appropriately.
Sing songs of peace and undergarments.
Pretend the worst hasn’t just happened.
If you would like to know how the other half lives, bend over.
Shame is shallow. Hope is hollow. Take this pill and swallow.
✶✶✶✶
John Randolph Carter. Poet and Artist. Finalist for the National Poetry Series, Carnegie Mellon Press October Competition, University of Wisconsin Press Brittingham and Pollack Prizes in Poetry, University of Akron Poetry Prize and the UCM Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize. Poetry in journals including Barrow Street, Connecticut Review, Cream City Review, Faultline, LIT, New American Writing, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Poet Lore, Sewanee Review, Southampton Review, Sycamore Review, Third Coast, and Verse Daily. Recipient of NEA, New York State Council, and Fulbright grants. Art in thirty-two public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Library of Congress. One-person exhibitions include the University of Michigan Art Museum and the Minneapolis Institute.
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